Newsletter No 47 August 2008/Nuusbrief Nr 47 Augustus 2008
The third in the series on historic artillery pieces in South Africa by Pat Irwin was on the 2 guns from the German WW I light cruiser, SMS Königsberg, in South Africa. The 10.5 cm gun at the west entrance to the Union Buildings was part of the Königsberg main armament. The other, at the Military History Museum, has a calibre of 8.8 cm and was possibly taken from the hold of the Königsberg where it might have been kept for arming merchant ships or may have come from the Königsberg's supply ship Kronberg. Both guns were eventualy captured by South African forces. After the destruction of the Königsberg in the Rufiji delta in July 1915, her guns were removed and fitted with gun carriages in the railway workshops in Dar-es-Salaam. Ten 10.5 cm and two 8.8 cm guns were used to good effect by Von Lettow-Vorbeck in his subsequent campaign in East Africa. A 10.5 cm gun was used to arm a gunboat on Lake Tanganyika, which allowed it to dominate that water for some time.
Alan Bamford's curtain raiser was of the Bishop's War Record in the 19th Century. The first Anglican Bishop of Cape Town founded a Collegiate School, familiarly referred to as "The Bishop's College" and finally and inevitably as "Bishops". Charles Hope, one of the original six pupils, distinguished himself at the siege of Sebastopol. Later, Hope commanded the 17th Fusiliers. In the Galeka War of 1877, a student, A Brauns, bore arms during his winter vacation. On his return to Bishops, he and fellow students formed a Cadet Corps. The first old boys to die on active service were Hamilton Hope (brother of Charles) and Murrell Ebden in the Basuto War of 1880. In 1888 an Army Class was formed. The Cape Times of 20 September 1892 reported the gallant manner in which an early graduate, Lieutenant Nightingale, with thirty Sepoys held the bridge at Toikaw in Burma against 400 dacoits. Other prominent members of the Army Class were Col. S E (Ted) St. Leger, CMG, CVO, DSO and Henry Percy Rudd, who was invalided out of the army and became an associate of Rhodes. Old boys were killed during the Matabele War in Rhodesia, including one as a member of Maj Wilson's Shangani Patrol. Eleven old boys died in the Anglo-Boer War.
The main lecture was by Malcolm Kinghorn on Long Range Penetration (LRP) Operations n Burma in 1943 and 1944. The originator of LRP was OrdeWingate, a regular soldier with considerable experience in irregular warfare in Palestine and Abyssinia. However, he displayed respect for neither the military establishment nor persons whose ideas differed from his own.
On his arrival in India after the Japanese invasion in January 1942 had forced the British withdrawal from Burma, Wingate realised that the situation offered great possibilities for a theory he had been developing for some time. He believed the enemy to be vulnerable in his lines of communication. He advocated that if self-supporting units, supplied by air, could reach these areas, they would be able to create havoc far out of proportion to their own strength. Strategically their object should be to so weaken the enemy forces that the main body of own forces would be able to launch an offensive under favourable conditions. Wingate emphasised that LRP should be employed as part of the general strategy and not as an end in itself. Operations would be carried out in good weather only, as in the monsoon, neither air supply nor air support could be relied upon. Movement would be by day with troops lying up in bivouacs at night. Close air support would take the place of artillery and tanks. If dispersed, troops would reassemble at pre-arranged rendezvous. LRP forces were not to engage enemy formations in front line areas. They were to attack rear echelon targets, thereby forcing the enemy to withdraw troops from the front in order to protect them. This would give the main body of own forces a favourable situation to exploit by offensive action.
In June 1942, Wavell agreed that Wingate should mount an operation, which was code named Longcloth, to test his theories. The force placed at his disposal was 77 Indian Brigade. The original strategic plan was that Longcloth would coincide with a major offensive. After the offensive had been indefinitely postponed in January 1943, Wavell gave authority for the operation to continue with the objective of disrupting and harassing the enemy. Wingate's brigade was deployed from February to June 1943.
When news of the success of Operation Longcloth was released, the unexpected reaction of the British and American public drew Wingate to the attention of Churchill, who took Wingate with him to the Quebec Conference. Wingate returned to India with plans for a divisional LRP operation, code named Thursday, in 1944. The concept was the establishment of brigade strength bases inside enemy territory, instead of the mobile columns used in Longcloth. Preparations for Wingate's second operation were even more contentious than for the first. It soon became clear that Thursday, as had Longcloth, could not be coordinated with an offensive by the main conventional ground forces. Wingate's 3rd Indian Division was deployed on the night of 5/6 March 1944. Two brigades were airlifted into position and one moved on foot. By 16 March the infiltration was complete and battle had been joined with the Japanese. Then fate struck when Wingate was killed in an air crash on 24 March.
The antagonism in high places towards Wingate was too great for Operation Thursday to survive his absence. By the end of May 1944, so many of the LRP principles had been breached that it achieved only a small proportion of its potential. The air forces, without which LRP operations are stillborn, were diverted to other tasks during the operation, while 3 Division was left in the field well in excess of the maximum period advocated by Wingate. This resulted in their failing to achieve certain objectives allocated after Wingate's death. This failure was exploited by Wingate's enemies to disprove the value of LRP operations.
Many of Wingate's doctrines are now practised in armies throughout the world. The most important is that the close cooperation between air and ground forces gives a flexibility which could and should he exploited. The history of LRP operations in Burma also proves that any "special" force can only realise its full potential when closely coordinated with the operations of the main body of conventional ground forces.
Sue & Mike Heywood, John Martin and Alwyn du Preez are welcomed as SAMHS members.
SAMHSEC's next meeting will be at 1930 on Monday 11 August 2008 in the Eastern Province Veteran Car Club. The curtain raiser will be on the RAF's Most Decorated Squadron by Tim Jones and the main lecture on Xhosa Warfare by Peter Gordon.
Malcolm Kinghorn.
SAMHSEC SCRIBE
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